dickwitfo
1949
46
15
Jun 9, 2026 3:42 PM
dickwitfo
1949
46
15
AyatollahBahloni
"Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man."
Targe0
This depends highly on soil composition and moisture levels.
As that can really shift how quickly things will break down.
Krashtestdummy
https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1dnRnbzdjcW05MnlieGFqbHZzZnFrbWI0OTJ6NDczdGg3MGJvZnRycSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/Fuki5Rri4s2LS/200w.webp
ShimmerinStrider
What if it's in a hot tub? I wanna be soup!
VolcanoHerder
Probably much quicker. The crows in my neighborhood like to put degloved rat carcasses in our fountain and they get nasty pretty quick. Their body parts partially dissolve enough to plug the pump in just a day or two. Haven't let it go longer than that because once the pump gets plugged the experiment is essentially ruined. Also it's just warm, not hot.
HeHeHebieJeebies
now lets try life in an instant pot - messy but faster.
Sherpafish
Just feed me to a bear. I want to be kept in the loop.
cousteau
I thougjt they just stayed at 90 like forever.
MothMonsterMan
I absolutely hate the idea of being embalmed. To me it's robbing your atoms their right to become another thing.
Why would I want to become something toxic when I die? Why not go back to nature and become a part of the earth again?
lenomdeplume
Only a good friend will help you move….
bippityboppitybuttsex
Note, this is assuming no casket and full, unrestricted access by microorganism.... if the body is embalmed it can be well over 15 years for this decay to occur...
If it is a sealed metal casket (the funeral home saw you coming and has a boat to pay off), it can take decades for that decay to occur
copperdomebodhi
Zombie apocalypse now looks easier to manage.
Volpe42
So as time goes on your body sinks farther into the ground, got it.
cousteau
I hate this joke because it is also sort of technically true.
EricAirheart
I feel like Im now on a list I wasn't already on.
Osgarth
This highly dependent on the soil, its moisture, toxicity levels, the temperature, depth, the local flora and fauna etc.
ChickenNuggetNumber05
but only if the ground is full of bacteria etc
foreverinchains
Unless they sterilize your corpse before burial, there's already enough bacteria in/on you to ensure you decompose.
Radix865
Not really, a dry and/or cold enviroment can cause your body to mummify instead. Think Ötzi for example.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi
foreverinchains
That's an entirely separate issue from what I was responding to, though.
TheobromineAddict
I'm more curious about what happens in an airtight casket with a body full of embalming fluids.
DutchBoeremeisie
AI slop.
DutchBoeremeisie
Not meant as an insult, just an FYI.
CompressedInfo
Interesting parallelism that seven years is also roughly the amount of time it takes your body to replace all its cells while you're alive... every seven years you're a totally new person
ilhares
THen why hasn't it pushed out those traces of graphite from the palm of my hand where I got stabbed with a pencil in 3rd grade?
FortifiedWhine
That's mostly a myth. Much of what you have, especially nerves and optical cells crucial to your brain are for life. Muscles, especially big ones take up to 15-20 years to fully replicate. And then there's growths, calcifications, scars, other irregular shit...
Otomasoteraph
So, after how many years the last body completely disappear and everything fall down a step, cleaning the uppermost spot?
cousteau
What's Earth's diameter?
trinxter
This is a viking skeleton.
cousteau
From last year?
FancypantsMcGill
Dead about a year according to this post
ArchaeoEejit
This is about 1000 years older, soil acidity moisture and oxygen levels play a big part in preservation. A friend of a friend was excavating lead coffins from the Victorian period, they remained watertight and kept most of it in. It was described as coffin soup. One of them caught the black death.
swedeonamoose
Depending on the soil the bones can remain for hundreds of years
Slenderhands
Sometimes other bits too! Let's not forget all those nice juicy bog bodies! Pretty sure we've found some of them into the thousands of years.
LuciusNeedful
It's not so much the soil, but the microbiome within the soil. Only certain bacteria can break down calcium.
CorvidPrime
So THAT’s why I don’t remember seeing any dinosaurs in the last 7 years…
nyarlathotep777
I thought it was due to pandemic-related memory suppression
rmx256
Depending on the bone I can remain in your mom.
ghornby
This is a fun fact from being a consultant archaeologist, it’s largely dependant on the acidity of the soil. In central Ontario, Canada many bones can last as little as a year, and larger ones like the pelvis might take 2-3. Tree growth accelerates it further as they can suck the calcium out within a few weeks/months.
ThisIsNotTheBestUsername
Sounds like some made up bullshit.
Targe0
How do you think fossils form?
Or how we have bones from people who died thousands of years ago?
TheMoonBnuuy
Bro doesn't know what natron is.
SyrupLease
For the benefit of others, natron is a salty mixture naturally found in the soil of the Egyptian desert, and the oldest Egyptian mummies are just laying out there, in the sand. The oldest Egyptian mummies are just laying out there buried in the sand, naked.
VolcanoHerder
You didn't have to make it all horny in that last sentence, but you did, and usersub appreciates that
BackToTheOriginalUsername
Aridity and salts, the best way to preserve your mummy for millennia. You can also see that in the chinchorro mummies from Chile.
Osgarth
Are you serious? We can find bodily remains going back the entire existence of life on earth.
ThisIsNotTheBestUsername
Highly doubt that.
Osgarth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil
ThisIsNotTheBestUsername
He wrote a whole ass wiki just to try and win an argument on the internet. Kinda cringe.
Shaddak
That's only when bones fossilize. Most animals that die, don't become fossils.
Osgarth
True. I was merely pointing out there are many examples of human and animal remains being preserved much longer than the above meme suggests. Using fossils as an extreme example to make a point. Even before the process of fossilization sets in there are also many examples of well preserved remains from the totality of human history. It just depends on various factors of the soil they are buried in.
Shaddak
Sure, and I'm not even saying that infographic was accurate. Just that, most of the time, bodies decay a lot faster than people realize. Remains that stick around for a long time are the exception. Yes, we have a lot of fossils from the entirety of human history but, collectively, they only represent about 6,000 individuals.